3 mts High Elevated Substation 2

[Okpower]

Hi to all!

I have just received the drafts of a 3 meters high elevated substation. The details include a space from level 0 to +3meters where the cables will be run and with the bottom entrance to the switchgear. Also, the drafts show the switchgear room 3 meters high with the respective ladders at eac side of the S/S. This is not a common architecture design in my country but as the contractor engineering company is from outside the country, i am not sure about how common is this design.
Is this a safety design?? (What about step up ladders of 3 m high in an emergency situation)

Thanks in advance for your opinions

 

[jghrist]

Sounds like the designer is worried about flooding.

 

[Okpower]

Actually, the designer's reasons is "to give more cooling space for the cables" (3 meters high?!). But the maximun yearly temperature in the zone is 36 Centigrades.
Our Civil engineer says that flooding is not a problem...the substation will be in an elevated zone, and they can make a good drainage system for rain water

 

[sberbece]

Most elevated S/Ss I’ve seen are up to 2 m.

I believe that “cooling” of cables is not enough reason for elevating the S/S at 3m.
In order to appreciate the elevation required, you have to make detail arrangement drawing, showing the ground level, cable ladders elevation considering HV & large LV cables’s bending radius, and cable ladders segregation (i.e. intersections and changes in direction).
Additionally, leave enough space for access during installation ( - it would be difficult to find dwarfs to do cable pulling, earthing connections and cables glanding).

This is pretty much all.

Regards,

 

[Bilegan]

It is not new to me as I have designed in the past for Substation building which is 4 meters above finished grade level for oil & gas processing plants.

This is a common practice for oil & gas facilities, for safety purposes, to elevate substations even further higher depending on the degree and extent of classified location from the ignition source, most likely if the characteristics of the present vapour density of flammable gases in the hazardous classified area are more than 1.0 heavier-than-air, and less than 1.0 lighter-than-air.

Electrical equipments inside the substation are potential sources of ignition because they produce heat due to arcs and sparks. As we all know, an electrical arcs are sustained luminous discharge of electricity across a gap in a circuit or between electrode. Whereas electrical sparks, are luminous electrical discharge of very short duration between two conductors that are separated by a gas, such as air.

Regards,
Bilegan

Murphy's Law - If anything can go wrong..it will.

 

[TurbineGen]

I have seen a substation built 4 meters up in Wyoming, US for a petrochemical company. The substation was not contained within a building however. It was used solely for power factor correction for the company's high volume pumps. The sub was quite remote (more than 10 miles from anything that could be considered civilization). Each support was grounded with it's own grounding rod. I'm not sure if there was any type of grounding mat, though.

It appeared very safe and I could not find any place where they were breaking some type of electrical code. I guess if done right the sub is safe, however building in the air is very costly. If strictly foor cable cooling, it might be cheaper to use bigger cables.

How is the equipment going to be serviced and operated? You mention a switchgear room, but is this room meant to be occupied only be the switch gear and cables, or is this room designed for personnel as well?

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If it is broken, fix it. If it isn't broken, I'll soon fix that.